secrets of the past
by purplecowlove
Summary: The BAU are assigned to a a new case along with another Behavior Analysis team, But Reid thinks that something is wrong, could he be right?
1. The Case

**Chapter one**

**The case**

It was bright and sunny; the BAU had just got back from another case, as they were unloading their suitcases from the jet Chief Strauss walked quickly over to them

"Keep those bags on that jet you have another case." She said handing them all files "you've been specifically requested to take this case and arrive as soon as possible; Agent Jereau will brief you on the jet."

"Ok then" Prentiss said as she put her suitcase back onto the jet

"But chief Strauss there's already a behavioural analysis team working on this case. Why would we need to go?" JJ was scanning through the file

"Because this has been going on for over thirty years, and we all this that it is time for this to stop, don't you?" Chief Strauss said before sauntering off

"Hey JJ, where exactly are we going?" Reid asked

"California. San Francisco" JJ answered, still flicking through the case file.

Back on the jet JJ started to brief them

"Between 1970 and 1979 twelve children were abducted, Marianne Bryunell, Jordan Peyterson, Cara Harrison, Aiden Gray, Harriet Swain, the list goes on." JJ said as twelve pictures of children appeared on the screen "all seven years old at the time of the abduction. In December 1980 they were all found dead, all laid in a row, on their backs with their arms crossed on their chests. Beaten to death apart from one, shot in the head and left there"

"So the Unsub beats eleven to death, and lays them in a mass grave with remorse. Then shots the last one, and doesn't show remorse. That makes no sense" Prentiss said

"1981 till 1989 twelve children were abducted again all seven at the time of the abduction," JJ continued "late 1990's they were all found dead, the same way, eleven beaten one shot,"

"What makes the Unsub change the MO?" Rossi questioned

"Not Unsub, Unsubs, there's around five,"

"How do we know this?" Reid asked

"There was a victim," Morgan answered "Caitlin Lamden, abducted September 12th 1996, her seventh birthday, she was on holiday. She was rescued when she was eleven"

"Why do you know so much about this?"

"I worked the case, before I came to the BAU." Morgan explained

"So where is Caitlin now?"

"Witness protection, she asked for it, she was convinced that they still wanted her."

"So apart from the different MO, is there anything else about these bodies?"

"They were all sexually abused if that what you mean.'

Morgan sighed and looked at his watch, "we're landing in five minutes."

"let's mean this other team then." Hotch said.


	2. Getting started

**Chapter Two**

**Getting started.**

**A/N: wow thanks to all you guys that added to story alert and everything **** I really appreciate it****. I can't think of a good title for this chapter, but if any of you have some ideas, I'm open to suggestions. **

Reid sat in the car with Hotch and Prentiss, the others were in a different car, looking over the case file.

"So what information did this girl Caitlin give us?" he asked no-one in particular

"Not much, they don't really know what happening until it happens." Said Prentiss "but she heard our unsubs talk about the 'tournament' but she didn't know what it meant until the day before she was rescued."

Whatt does it mean?"

"He gets the children to fight each other. To the death." Prentiss already hated these unsubs, nothing could justify this in her mind. She sighed and looked out the window, trying to enjoy the scenery, not that there was much, it was just roads. She caught sight of a motor cyclist behind them, not just behind them, almost following them. Making the same turns they did just seconds after. Not trying to overtake them, just following. She watched the motor cyclist for a while before deciding to say,

"Hey hotch, pull over would you?"

"Why?"

"Because I think someone is following us, or at least wants to get past." Prentiss answered

"You do realise that we have a case?"

"Yeah but..."

"Fine" Hotch cut her off and pulled over; the motorcyclist pulled over too and got off of the bike.

"Is that the person that you thought was following us?" Reid asked

"Yeah. What...?" Prentiss was cut off by the motorcyclist yelling "you guys do know that you're heading in completely the wrong direction, right?" she took of her helmet, revealing her face "Special Agent Alexandra Hart of the California behavioural analysis unit," she held out her badge "but most people call me Lexi. You're the BAU from Quantico right?" she didn't stop for them to answer "your headed in the wrong way, the offices are back that way."

"We were going to drop off our bags at the hotel first."

"Hotel?" Lexi scoffed "do you really think that you were going to be staying in a hotel when you're solving a case that's been going on for _thirty_ years? No, we already have rooms for you. Follow me." And with that she put her helmet on, ran back to her bike and drove off.

"Well, that was interesting." Reid said, as Hotch sighed and turned the car around.

As they pulled up onto the driveway they saw the house that their rooms were in. Reid gasped; he'd never seen a house so big

"Hey! You guys like my house?" Lexi waved while undoing her ponytail

"Whoa wait... this is _your _house?"

"Yeah, my dad left me a bit of money so I thought I would buy a house." Lexi replied simply as her red hair cascaded down her back "your rooms are on the third floor, but just dump your bags we need to get to the office soon, I'll give you the grand tour later."

"Where are the others?" Hotch asked

"Already at the office, they looked at their phones."

"What?"

"Check your phone." Lexi sighed

"'You're staying with Agent Hart not in a hotel her address is...'" Hotch stopped reading.

"See?" Lexi said "now dump your bags we _need _to get to the office!"

As they walked into the main hallway Reid began to notice things, but he kept quiet, he didn't want Lexi to know that he was beginning to think that something was up.

"Ok put your bags down here, you can sort out which room you're in later." They dumped their bags next to a small table with a photo frame on it, no photo, just a frame. "Ok so I'll go on ahead on my bike, you guys drive yeah?"

"Fine." Hotch replied.

In the car Reid brought up his suspicions "did any of you notice the photo frame?"

"What about it?" Hotch replied

"It was just a frame no picture, nothing. It was like she took it out before we got here, like she was hiding something."

"Maybe she just didn't have a picture to put in it."

"But it wasn't just that, there were hardly any pictures of her family, but loads with her and her friends, and half the pictures were either wildlife or just frames." Reid tried to get his point across

"All of these things can be explained Reid, don't profile her." Prentiss argued

"B...bu...Bu..." Reid stammered

"Let it go Reid, we'll profile her if we need to." Hotch said, and the rest of the journey was spent in silence.

**A/N: hope you liked it, and if any of you think you know what might be going on in Reid's head, tell me! **


	3. the team

**Chapter three**

**The team**

"Hey, you guys finally made it!" Morgan said as they walked into the building

"Yeah, we headed in the wrong direction."

"Seriously?" JJ laughed and they walked into the conference room

"Agent Hotchner, you're here. I trust you found you way easily?" a tall man in a black suit came up to them.

"Nope, they headed in the wrong direction; I had to set them straight." Lexi said, answering for them.

The man laughed, "I'm supervisory special agent Jacob Harris, you've met Lexi, this is special agent Meredith Chen and her twin, our technical analyst, Eleanor Chen. And this is Special Agent Lucas Davidson" he gestured to the people sitting around the table.

The twins got up to shake hands with everyone, they could have been clones, their olive skin was exactly the same shade, their black hair was tied in ponytails, but Meredith had a fringe. The only other difference was that their tops were different colours, Meredith wore red and Eleanor wore blue. Prentiss sighed with relief, maybe she could tell them apart.

"Shall we get started then?" Jacob said, motioning for them to sit down as he sat down at the head of the table.

"Two days ago a Jane Doe was found, alive but with no memory, she's been identified as Mellissa Hadley and she was carrying a note, addressed to Caitlin." Lexi started

"The girl that was rescued?

"Yeah, it said: if you want to see them live, you must take $100,000 to the Golden Gate Bridge, at midnight in one week. You will not involve the police."

"Who's them?"

"The other eleven, they're alive, at least we think that that's who they mean."

"Would there be any reason for you _not_ to think that."

"Well, not yet."

"What about Caitlin, does she know about this?" Morgan asked

"No, no-one knows where to find her." Lucas said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world "that's the whole idea of witness protection"

* * *

While they were discussing where Caitlin could possibly be, Reid took the opportunity to look around at the California team. There was Jacob, the obvious leader, works a lot, he had a ring on his finger, so he was married, but either having problems or divorced. Imitation designer suit, he acts like he has a lot of money, trying to keep up an appearance. He acts as if everything is ok, but he hasn't been sleeping well, and his brown hair was receding; something is causing him stress.

Lexi looked young, too young to be in the FBI, nothing seemed immediently curious or suspicious about her, the only thing that was the picture frames, but that was it. She was hiding something; she was just doing a damn good job of hiding it. She wasn't married or engaged, there wasn't a ring, but there was a locket round her neck that she kept touching. She could be seeing someone, which wasn't unlikely.

Meredith and Eleanor seemed normal enough, around thirty, Eleanor was engaged, to someone middle class, maybe upper-middle class, Reid was no jewellery expert. Reid couldn't really identify anything about Meredith that wasn't normal, apart from a large bruise on her left arm that she was trying to cover up, she wore a jacket, but it was too warm to keep it on in the office so she rolled up the sleeves, but not for long, as soon as she eyed Reid staring at it, she rolled her sleeves back down, preferring to sweat like a pig that to talk about it.

The last member of the team was Lucas, designer suit, he has the money and he wants people to know, he thinks he 's superior from the rest of the team, Reid could tell that from just the way he looked at them, he hates them... all. It wasn't just that either, everyone looked at him... with fear, apart from Eleanor, Eleanor hates him. But why? That the problem with profiling, you get the what. But you don't get the why.

"Doctor Reid." Said Lucas, snapping Reid back to the real world "you don't seem to have a lot to say."

"You don't seem to have a lot to say either. The whole time I've been here I've only heard you say fourteen words." Reid replied, Lexi and Meredith were looking at him saying 'don't do it' with their eyes.

"Boys, Boys, boys. Now's not the time to start an argument. Now's the time to solve a case!" Jacob tried to laugh it off, it worked. Lucas sighed and turned back to the case files.

"Now let's go over the case. Agent Morgan, would you do the honours?" Jacob motioned for Morgan to stand.

"Right. So, twelve children are taken over nine years, at age seven, on the tenth year they're found dead, laid in a mass grave, eleven beaten to death, laid out with signs of remorse the twelfth shot and left there. This was repeated for twenty nine years. Then in 2000, Caitlin Lamden was being taken to a new hideout when she managed to escape, she was found in Cehicago." Morgan said

"After then, nothing. Until almost ten years later, we have a note for a ransom." Meredith completed.

"There has to be a significance to the age that their abducted." Prentiss said

"Well all the victims were sexually abused, it's possible our unsubs were abused then they were seven."

"About 30% of abused and neglected children will later abuse their own children." Reid said being his normal boy-genius self

"Yes, but how does that help us?" Lucas said scornfully

"Rather than harming their own children, it could be that the unsubs use surrogates." Prentiss said "it could be someone who looks like their child..."

"But there wasn't any links between the victims, apart from their ages! Do you even know what you're talking about?"Lucas nearly yelled

"She was saying it as a possibility!" Morgan yelled back

"Well it wasn't a very good one was it?"

Seeing that this was going to cause quite a heated argument, Lexi joined in "shut up!" she shouted, louder than both of them. She lowered her voice "Lucas, can I talk to you outside?"

"Why?"

"Because I would very much like to speak with you in private."

"Fine." Lucas sighed and left the room.

* * *

"What the hell are you doing? We _need _this team, do not piss them off on their first day here!" Lexi kept her voice calm

"It's not my fault that they're idiots who don't know _anything_!"

"Really?" she laid the sarcasm on heavy "and I suppose you know more than people with over five years of experience?"

"Yes I do!" Lucas said, and with that Lexi slapped him round the face. Hard.

When they got back to the conference room Lucas was rubbing his cheek, where Lexi had left a huge red hand mark.

"Did you hit him?" Eleanor asked

"Please, I just did what everyone here wanted to do. Now where were we?"


	4. Let It Go

**Chapter Four**

**Let It Go**

**Disclaimer, i don't own criminal minds **

**A/N: wow thanks to everyone who's reading this ;) sorry I haven't been including Rossi and Hotch that much, :-S and I'm sorry it's so long, I just couldn't think of when to cut it, but anyways enjoy! :-)**

It was half eleven and the teams had run through every possibility they could think of. They had a rough profile, but it needed work,

"Right, I think we've done enough for today, we'll reconvene here back at eight." Jacob said as he got up, everyone followed.

"You guys know the way right?" Lexi said to the team from Quantico "I'll see you back at my house." She grabbed her helmet and walked off.

"You don't know the way do you?" Meredith said to them, their blank faces showed their agreement "don't worry; Lexi can be a bit..."

"Assertive?" Prentiss suggested

"Loud?" Morgan suggested

Meredith laughed "I was going to say annoying, but you're ideas work too. I'll take you there, I'm going there anyway. I live with her."

"So why don't you go in the same car?" Reid asked

"She hates being in a car. She was in a car accident when she was younger, her parents died. Never ridden in a car since."

Reid was just about to ask another question when Hotch and Rossi shot him a warning look and Reid fell quiet, Meredith raised her eyebrows but said nothing.

* * *

Ten minutes later they were in the driveway,

"Wow," Lexi said stepping onto the gravel "took you long enough."

"Yeah it would help if they knew the way." Meredith responded

"Oh! I did it again!" she sighed "I'm so sorry! I assume _way_ too much. Forgive me?" everyone laughed

"Shall we give you the grand tour?"

"That would probably be best." Hotch said

"Right" Lexi said with an apologetic expression, she led the six Quantico agents into the house and Meredith began to walk in the opposite direction

"Aren't you going to come?" Rossi asked

"No, I already know my way around here." Meredith smiled and carried on walking.

"Ok then, shall we get started, it'll only be quick, I imagine you would want some sleep pretty soon." Lexi said before she began to herd the Quantico team into the next room like a teacher taking her students on a school trip.

* * *

Meredith locked the bathroom door behind her, and looked in the mirror. Were the bruises really that noticeable? No, she'd put on foundation, it was almost invisible. But the one on her arm, she'd seen that Doctor Reid looking at it. What does he think has happened? He couldn't possibly know the truth. She lifted up her shirt; her stomach was black with bruises and covered with cuts. Why did she let him do this to her? And more importantly, why did she let it carry on? She remembered when Lexi found out

"_Hey Lexi." Meredith said as Lexi opened the door "can I crash with you for a while?" _

"_Yeah sure Mer... Oh My God! Meredith! Are you alright?" Lexi cried as she saw Meredith "what happened? Were you mugged? Oh my god, we need to call the police! Who did this to you?"Questions spewed out of her mouth as Meredith touched her swollen lip gingerly _

"_Can I come in?" she asked _

"_Yeah sure, we need to get you to a hospital, did you bring anything?" Lexi looked at her empty hands "no." She answered the question for herself "what happened? Where's Lucas?"_

_Meredith touched her arm gently _

"_No! No, not Lucas? He did this to you?" Meredith nodded "how long...?" then Lexi remembered._

_It was something you could push to the back of your mind easily, too easily with the right excuses, 'I was making some coffee when the phone rang and startled me.' 'I tripped on an old pile of laundry and fell down the stairs' Meredith had used them all... for over a year now. _

"_A week after I started dating him." Meredith whispered _

"_Well then, you're staying with me now." Lexi said as she reached for the first aid kit. _

Meredith smiled sadly, Lexi had been so kind to her, she bought her a whole new wardrobe, let Meredith stay in her house. Unlike her twin, who was disgusted and ashamed that Meredith had let this happen. Eleanor was the one that told Jacob, since then he began hating everyone on the team. Snide comments, rude remarks, he'd said them to everybody. And it was her fault. No. She can't think like that. No one should think like that, she told herself, it was _not _her fault, and she shouldn't let Lucas make her feel that way.

* * *

"and this is your floor, with your rooms on it, there's a kitchen down at the far end and every room has an en suite bathroom, me and Meredith normally have breakfast in the informal dining room at seven, you're welcome to join us... oh, and the cupboards are fully stocked in that kitchen so if you want something to eat, it's there... and that should be it."

"Jeez, two kitchens, five family rooms, a games room, a billiards room, a library... is there anything you _don't _have?" Morgan said laughing.

Lexi thought for a minute "I don't have a cat. I'm allergic." She smiled as everyone laughed at her joke "so I'll just leave you to it then shall I?" and she walked downstairs

"Anyone else gonna get something to eat?" Prentiss said as she made her way to the kitchen

"I'm gonna look around the rooms first, but save some for me." JJ replied

"Same." Reid said

"I'll go." Morgan began to walk to the kitchen as well

"No, not for me. I'm just going to call jack, then I'm going to sleep, what about you Dave?"

"Erm. I think I'll just go to sleep, not hungry." Rossi responded

"Ok then,"

The rooms were simple yet effective, with very minimalistic designs. There were eight in total. Each room was based on a different colour; red, blue, green, purple, beige, grey, pink and yellow with a matching en suite.

"Ok this is really organised." JJ remarked "every single room is the same, just different colours."

"Looks like Hotch has taken the beige one and Rossi has taken the red one. What one do you want?"

"I'll take the purple one. You?"

"Green. The resemblance is uncanny." This was yet another thing to add to Reid's list

"I know, well I suppose they are just guest rooms, it's not as if she's going to spend time and money making them all different. Come on Spence, let get something to eat."

"What are we going to eat?" Prentiss asked rooting around in the cupboards

"How about apple pie?" Morgan suggested looking in the fridge

"She left us pie?"

"Yeah, and by the looks of it, she made it herself."

"She _made _us pie?"

Morgan laughed

"Hey. What's so funny?" Reid asked as he and JJ walked into the kitchen

"She made us pie."

As they settled down to eat the apple pie, they talked,

"Did any of you notice the bruise on Meredith's arm?" Reid asked

"Yes, but there's no sense in looking into it Reid, it looked old, she probably just walked into something." Prentiss answered

"Yeah Spence, we're supposed to be profiling our unsubs, not the team we're working with." JJ said "ooh I almost forgot! I have some pictures of Henry!" JJ changed the subject, and Reid didn't need to be a genius to figure out that no-one was going to listen to his suspicions


	5. Profile A Profiler

**Chapter 5**

**The nightmare**

**Disclaimer: I don't own criminal minds **

**A/N: wow, thanks for all the views and comments, it means a lot to me ;-) **

Lexi woke with a start, using all of her self control to not scream. Panting heavily she got out of bed and began pacing around the room, unsure of what to do with herself. She had tried everything, sleeping pills, therapy, even hypnosis. Nothing could get rid of these nightmares. She looked at the clock and sighed, one am. 'Well' she thought to herself 'might as well do some extra work on the case' as she made her way to the library.

Her study was in the library, behind the door that looks as if it could lead to a store room, no-one had asked about it, so no-one knew it was there, well apart from Meredith, but Meredith knows almost everything about this house. Her study was modern, contrasting with the old design of the library. It was perfectly equipped for a profiler; there was a desk with a top of the line computer, a whiteboard so big that it took up a whole wall and a bookcase with every single book on profiling and serial killers. There was a coffee machine in the corner, 'perfect' Lexi thought 'exactly what I need.' She smiled sadly as much as she wanted to believe it, coffee was _not _exactly what she needed, what she needed was a decent night's sleep. But who could get that when they keep getting woken by nightmares three times a week.

She put some coffee on and began to work. By three am the whiteboard was full, she'd built up profiles, detailed ones. She stood there looking at the whiteboard drinking her fifth cup of coffee. What was the trigger? She asked herself. Why the note? Why the ransom? Why now? They'd never asked for money before. That was the one piece that didn't fit that on anomaly. She decided to look around the library, maybe there was a book that she could use. It was an unlikely factor, but if would give her something to do. She grabbed her torch and went out; there wasn't much point in turning the lights on just for her.

She sighed. She'd looked around this whole library and nothing, absolutely nothing she could use... maybe if she looked around one more time a little voice in the back of her mind kept telling her that she'd missed something, she was looking at a bookcase when she heard someone come in, she span around wildly, an irrational fear spreading over her, she began to back away into a corner when she heard

"Lexi?"

"Doctor Reid?" she answered as he flipped the lights on "Jesus Christ doctor Reid! You scared the hell out of me!"

"You're an FBI agent with seven other FBI agents in the house, what did you think was going to happen?" he said, Lexi agreed with him, he did have a point, what _did _she think was going to happen?

She sighed "what are you even doing here it's like half three in the morning!"

"Couldn't sleep."

Lexi raised her eyebrows "seriously?"

"Yeah, do you think that if I could sleep I would be here right now?"

"Fair enough." She said as she watched Reid scrutinize her collection of books

"Stop that!" she almost shouted

"What?"

"Profiling me!" she tried to keep quiet "my secrets are _mine _I don't want you knowing them."

"So you have secrets."

"Yes! Everyone has secrets! I have secrets, you have secrets everyone has secrets."

"Does Meredith?"

"Why do you want to know?" Lexi became defensive

"She has a bruise, on her arm."

"So? Lots of people have bruises. I bet you've had bruises." It took all of her self control to not shout.

"How old are you?" he asked

"What?" she said, taken aback by the question

"How old are you?" he repeated

"Seriously?"

"Yes. If I were to guess I would say 20, but that's too young to be in such a specialized field."

"I'm twenty five. Why?"

"I just... wanted to know..." he said simply "but that still young."

"I was homeschooled, I didn't have summer vacation."

Reid raised his eyebrows "seriously?"

"I have an eidetic memory." She sighed "happy? You got one of my secrets."

"That explains a bit." Reid muttered to himself, thinking about the conditions of the books, hardly any of them looked well read.

"What? You're profiling me _now_! Fine you know what! Go ahead." She squared up to him "tell me everything about me. Profile a profiler." She challenged him.

Even though she was at least half a foot shorter than him Reid still felt intimidated "erm... you name is Alexandra Hart, you're twenty five. Eidetic memory, but doesn't like people to know that she has it. My guess is that it's linked with some childhood trauma, I would say bullied but you were homeschooled, probably because of your eidetic memory." He began talking quicker "you share a house with Meredith Chen, who has a secret and has told you, but doesn't want anyone else to know, and my guess is that it has something to do with Agent Davidson or Lucas, you call your team members by their first name, so you trust them, maybe more than you think you should... err, I presume your seeing someone..."

"Stop." She cut him off "I'm not seeing anyone, why think that?"

"well... that locket around your neck, you're wearing it even now, so it means a lot to you, and my guess is, you haven't taken it off since you got it." he began profiling her again

"Your good..." she said in admiration

"Don't sound so surprised." He laughed, and she laughed along with him, but the laughter was short-lived

"But I still don't get It." she said "if I were to profile you. I would say that you liked your job and therefore worked a lot. So why are you not focusing on the job now?"

"I don't know your secrets so... intriguing. I want to know."

"Believe me; you _don't _want to know my secret. But please... focus on this case; I don't want those eleven to die." She almost begged Reid. This was new Reid hadn't expected her to let her guard down

"Did you know them?" he asked

"What? No! Why do you think that? All I asked you were to keep you mind on this case rather than invading my privacy? Who do you think you..." and he kissed her.

They broke apart

"What do you think you're doing?" she said

"Sorry... I just..."

"I never said stop." She smiled and they kissed again

**A/N looking over at my comments and I realised that I didn't spell-check! Thank you morgo7kc! I owe you ;-) it should be al ok now ;-)**


	6. Wondering

**Chapter 6**

**Wondering**

**Disclaimer: I don't own criminal minds**

**A/N: yeah so here it is :-) hope you like :-)**

"What time is it?" Lexi said

"Err... five thirty." Reid said looking at his watch

"What time do you think the rest of your team will wake up?"

"Dunno, probably between six and half six...maybe I should go. Don't want awkward questions to be asked." He smiled

"Same."

"But if it's any consolation I would like to take you on a date, a real one." Reid looked at her hopefully

"I'd like that to. What about lunch today?"

"That's cool." Reid kissed her

They walked out of the library holding hands

"Hey, so are you guys gonna have breakfast with us?" Lexi asked him

"Maybe, I'd like to have breakfast with you, but I don't want to arouse suspicion."

"About what?"

"What's...going on... between us." Reid said slowly

"Is there something going on between us?" she smiled shyly

"Maybe." He said as he turned away "maybe."

* * *

Half an hour later Lexi was dressed and sitting in her room, thinking about what happened last night, when Meredith came in

"I'm guessing you woke up again last night." She said eyeing the black bags underneath her eyes

"Damn, do you think anyone would notice?" Lexi looked in the mirror

"You might want to cover it up a bit. Was it that nightmare?"

Lexi sighed; sometimes she hated the fact that Meredith knows so much about her "yeah. God, I just can't get rid of it, the same thing over and over in my head." She sighed again "I just wish that there was a way to get rid of it."

"So what _did _you do tonight?" Meredith asked

Lexi smiled, but the smile didn't quite reach her eyes "I went to my office, did some work on the case, and then I was looking around the library when I bumped into Doctor Reid."

"Ooh!" Meredith laughed "what happened? Tell all!"

"Nothing... much, I mean we kissed..."

"Oh my god! You kissed! Tell me everything! Wait... you didn't...?"

"No! God Meredith! Who do you take me for? I only just met him. No! I mean we talked and we kissed and that's all there is to it... just don't tell _anyone _ok?"

"Why?" Meredith wanted to tell everyone. Lexi had finally found love! Meredith wanted to scream it from the top of the house. Meredith hadn't known Lexi for a long time, they had only met on the first day of university, but she seemed so sad, Meredith just thought it was because everyone else was nineteen, she was seventeen and they had been assigned a dorm room together

"_Hey, I'm Meredith Chen." Meredith opened the door and looked at the girl sitting on the bed _

"_Hey. Alexandra." She said without looking up _

"_Do you have a nickname?"_

"_No." Her voice was flat and monotone _

"_Some people call me Mer. Or Merry. Call me what you like." _

"_Okay."_

_Meredith could see that she was going to lead most of the conversations "so did your family drop you off or..." she was about to say 'did you come here alone?' but she stopped, when Alexandra looked up at her _

"_What family?" her piercing green eyes looked at Meredith up and down, but never locked eye contact _

"_You don't have a family? A mom? Dad?"_

"_They died." She looked at the floor again_

"_I'm sorry."_

"_Don't say that! You're not sorry!" Alexandra voice wasn't flat anymore it was filled with, what Meredith could only describe as hatred? Then she calmed down "I'm sorry, it was a hard time for me when they died."_

"_You wanna talk about it?"_

"_Why would I talk to you?" her eyes were fastened to the floor _

"_Because I'm you're room-mate, and I've not been in here five minutes and I can see you need to talk about it."_

"_But I _can't _that's the problem. I _can't _talk to _anyone!_"_

"_Why?"_

"_Because..." and then secrets just spilled out of her. _

_Hours later, when Alexandra was hoarse from talking, Meredith took Alexandra's hand and said "thank you Lexi."_

"_Lexi?"_

"_Yeah." Meredith smiled, Lexi smiled too, but the smile didn't quite reach her eyes _

"_I'm sorry, you caught me at a weak moment, I shouldn't have told you all this, I only just met you for Christ sakes! Forget everything I just told you. Please."_

"_I'm not going to forget the last" she looked at her watch "two and a half hours of my life."_

"_I just told a random stranger my deepest and darkest secrets!"_

"_Well then, I'm not a random stranger. I'm your friend... and don't worry," Meredith reassured her "I won't tell anyone." This time, the smile briefly visited her eyes. Briefly, but it was still a proper smile _

"_And now, because you told me all about you, I shall tell you everything about me." And Meredith told Lexi about everything, about the time she stole her mom's car and crashed it, about the time her dad walked out on her and her mom because he met someone else, about the time her boyfriend made her do weed then they got busted in a drugs raid. Everything. _

"_Now, we're not just friends... we're best friends." She said, and they carried on talking the entire night._

Looking back, things had changed a lot since university, especially Lexi. Seeing her now, smiling and laughing as of nothing was wrong, as if nothing were haunting her dreams it was hard to believe that she was the same person that spoke in flat monotone voice, untrusting of anyone at first

"You can't tell anyone because of the whole rule of fraternizing with other agents." Lexi's laugh brought Meredith back to the present "plus, I don't even know if there _is _a thing between me and him y'know, I mean I was practically drunk with coffee."

"How many cups?"

"Five." Lexi smiled sheepishly

"Really Lexi?" Meredith said stunned "that's way more than you normally have, I think I might just have to sign you up for the caffeine addicts anonymous."

Lexi laughed "yeah, but only if I can sign you up for shopaholics anonymous. Remember when you first moved in here, you cost me a small fortune."

"If I do remember correctly, it was _you _buying those things _for _me. I don't think that that counts."

"Speaking of when you moved in. Why me? Why not Eleanor? You guys are actual sisters."

"I did, but... Lexi you should have seen her, the look on her face, she was horrified, she hated me for letting him do that to me. Then she gave that whole 'I told you so' speech. She hates my choice in men, remember I told you about that time when my boyfriend convinced me to do weed then we got caught in a drugs bust."

"But you were fifteen!" Lexi exclaimed "the past is the past."

"Besides," Meredith continued "she'd only just got engaged, and she was so happy, and if I moved in I would have ruined that all."

"So you thought you would ruin my life?" Lexi was smiling

Meredith sniggered "yeah. I thought I would."

"I don't get it, why won't you let me report him?" Lexi asked

"If I report him, he'll come after me again." Meredith sighed, as much as she wanted to report him, get him locked away and make sure that he never does it again she couldn't, because he would get out sooner or later and then he would come after her, and Meredith didn't know if she could cope with him doing that to her again.

"Anyway, I need to go and put my makeup on, need to hide this stupid black eye. And I suggest that you put on something to cover those bags." Meredith was smiling as she left the room.

Lexi sighed and went over to her dresser to get her foundation wondering if Spencer was going to join them for breakfast, of course she would have liked if more if it was just _her _that he was joining, but it was better than nothing.


	7. Breakfast

**Chapter seven **

**Breakfast**

**Disclaimer: I don't own criminal minds **

"All I'm saying is that if you give her a second chance, she'll give you one. You're _sisters_" Lexi told Meredith, who was sitting on the counter watching Lexi cut up fruit

"No. I got my second chance after the incident with my mom's car, I got a _third _chance when I got busted for weed, I got a _fourth _chance when I came home drunk and puked all over her. I got a _fifth _chance..."

"Ok! Ok! I get it you used up a lot of chances, but still you should have lunch with her today." Lexi tried to persuade Meredith to have lunch with her twin

"no. Nul. Nein. Nid oes. Ei. Ingen. Nincs. No!" Meredith said the word in seven languages to prove her point

"English, French, German, welsh, Norwegian, Hungarian. Wow I surprised to know the same work in seven languages."

Meredith smiled "still no means no, I'm not having lunch with her, I'm having lunch with you as always."

"But Meredith! She looks so sad just sitting there by herself."

"Then you go sit with her!" Meredith cried exasperated

"I can't. I have plans."

"So do I!"

"Yeah, but you're plans could be cancelled. Mine can't."

"They're the same plans!" Meredith almost screamed, what was with the whole pushiness all of a sudden...

"Wait a minute!" Meredith said "you made plans with someone else didn't you?"

Lexi laughed "please Meredith, you acting like we're married!"

"Who are they with?" Meredith was suddenly interested

"Ahh! So you're not mad at me anymore?"

"Nope" she made a popping sound on the 'p' "wait a minute..."

"Meredith, if I keep waiting a minute I'll be late for work!" Lexi laughed

"They're with Reid! Aren't they?" Meredith said

"Again Meredith, we're not married. I'm not cheating on you." Lexi tried to laugh it off "Damn, stupid nectarine. Can't get the stone out" she muttered to herself

"Still." Meredith punched Lexi playfully on the shoulder "I think..." she was interrupted by Lexi crying out in pain

"Never hit my on the shoulder when I am trying get a stone out of a fruit. I hope you like blood on your fruit salad." Lexi said holding up her palm, revealing a large cut.

"Oh my god! Are you alright?" Meredith jumped down from the counter

"Yeah I'm fine. Just get me a plaster, that cabinet there" she pointed with her good hand

"Ok, here you go." Meredith said holding out the plaster

Lexi looked at the plaster in Meredith's hand "fantastic!" she groaned

"What?" Meredith said innocently

"You know what!" Lexi replied fumbling to put the plaster on "a little help here!"

Meredith laughed

"So you find your friends pain funny? When was the last time we needed a plaster like this?" she snarled

"A month ago when my brother and his family decided to visit." Meredith replied still acting all innocent

"Whatever, I'm going to work." Lexi sighed

"What about breakfast?" Meredith asked

"What about it? We know how it's going to end. I'll put some on my plate, not eat it and just drink coffee." Lexi responded "let's cut out the middle man today shall we?" she walked out of the kitchen grabbing her helmet and jacket she walked out the door, leaving Meredith to enjoy breakfast alone and in silence

* * *

Morgan smiled as he walked into their kitchen, Reid was piling sugar into his coffee, completely unaware that there was anyone else in the room; this was too good an opportunity to miss

Derek crept right up behind him then said "hey pretty boy how about some coffee with that sugar."

Reid yelped and knocked the coffee cup over, breaking the mug and spilling coffee all over his hand. He turned around to see Morgan laughing

"Not funny Derek!" he turned to put his hand under the tap.

"Hey... what happened?" JJ said as she walked in seeing the remnants of the coffee cup

"Morgan decided give me a heart attack."

"It was too good an opportunity to miss!" Morgan defended himself

JJ laughed as she began to pick up the remains

"Don't worry about that." Reid said "I'll clear it up."

"No, I'll do it." JJ put the pieces of coffee cup in the bin "look I'm almost done anyways."

"Fine." Reid exhaled in defeat

Prentiss, who had come in with JJ, decided that now was too good an opportunity to miss for _her. _Morgan had his back turned and he hadn't noticed her come in, after hearing the story she decided it was time for payback. She snuck up behind him then yelled

"BOO!"

Morgan jumped and dropped the mug he was holding. The mug smashed on the floor. Morgan turned to see Prentiss, JJ and Reid laughing.

"Ha ha, very funny!" he said sarcastically "keep this up and there won't be any mugs left"

"What happened here?" Hotch said as he walked into the room with Rossi

"Derek decided it was good to give Spence a heart attack, then Emily decided it was good to give some payback" JJ explained

"It was too good an opportunity to miss." Said Prentiss and Morgan at the same time

"right." said Hotch, deciding not to press the matters further.

* * *

**A/N: hope you enjoyed it ;-), I might not have the next chapter up for a while, I have family visiting :-). But I'll try to get it up as soon as possible **


	8. The Lunch Date

**Chapter 8**

**The lunch date **

**Disclaimer: I don't own criminal minds**

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Lexi was at her desk when Jacob walked in,

"Hey." He said

"Hey." She waved at him

"Nice plaster." He commented

"Shut up!"

"So what? Are you a workaholic now? You're here an hour early."

"I'm here an hour early everyday."

"Half an hour." Jacob corrected

"Yeah, well I skipped out on breakfast today so..." she trailed off

"Well then." He opened his briefcase and threw her an apple

"No I don't really..."

"Eat." He cut her off

"No!"

"I'm not leaving until you eat at least one bites of that apple."

"Yes _dad_." She laughed and took a bite "happy?"

"Yes, now finish it." he ordered

"Yes dad." She repeated as Jacob left the room. She watched him walk away, then as soon as he was out of sight she threw the rest of the apple in the bin. Lexi went back to work. She was typing away furiously when the rest of the profilers walked in. She glanced over at Spencer, smiling, but then quickly looked away remembering the fact that they were going to keep their 'thing' secret.

They walked past not giving her a second glance, so Lexi went back to finishing her reports. She looked down at her desk. Was that piece of paper their before? She wondered. No. She decided, it couldn't be, her desk was always neat, this was just thrown there. She looked at it, it had writing on it

She smiled and put the piece of paper in a draw then settled down to e-mail

_Hey _

_What are we gonna do for lunch?_

_L xxx_

She sent the e-mail and then waited for a reply. She checked the clock on her computer screen 7:50. Ten minutes till she was Agent Alexandra Hart, helping Eleanor search for Caitlin. A task she will specifically ask for, she made a mental note. A message flashed on her computer screen 'one new e-mail." She opened it

_Don't know, you're the person who should now good places for lunch:)_

_We should leave at different times though. It would be suspicious if we walked out together,_

_S xxx_

Lexi laughed

_Ha ha _she wrote back

_You make it sound like we're undercover _

_I know a little diner a couple blocks down, you wanna go there?_

_L xxx_

'One new e-mail.'

_Cool lets go there._

_You can leave first; I'll meet you in the parking lot_

_S xxx_

Lexi smiled, but before she could answer Spencer's e-mail she got another one

_You didn't finish that apple. _

Lexi laughed

_Sorry dad :)_

She sent the message and began to answer Spencer's e-mail

_Cool_

_L xxx_

She then waited for a reply from Jacob

_I'm not your dad! _

Lexi checked the time 7:55. She got up and went to the conference room

* * *

The rest of the morning passed quickly. Not much happened, the profiles were finished and they were preparing to give them out to the local police force after lunch, and no matter how hard Lexi and Eleanor looked they couldn't find any record of Caitlin,

"How's it going?" Jacob asked

"Nothing! Absolutely nothing!" Eleanor sighed in defeat "I've gone through every encrypted file, hacked into every database that I could think of. And nothing!"

"Don't worry, we'll find her." Jacob reassured her "ok one hour for lunch."

Lexi walked out of the room,

"Hey, Reid. What are you gonna do for lunch?" Morgan asked

"I was just going to have a walk around. Check out the sights."

"I'll come with you."

"You don't have to do that, I was just going to look for a bookstore."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah." Said Spencer as he walked quickly, well almost ran, out of the room. 'Yes Spencer,' he told himself 'great way _not _to arouse suspicion.'

He walked out into the parking lot.

"Spencer?" Lexi said as she tapped him on the shoulder

"Lexi." He said turning around and kissing her

"Hey," she whispered once they broke apart

"Hey," he whispered back, and they kissed again.

"We should leave now." She said biting her lip

He smiled "not yet." They stayed there for the next ten minutes

* * *

"Hey... err... is this seat... um... taken?" Meredith stuttered out the question

Eleanor looked up at her, an icy glare melted as soon as she saw how awkward Meredith looked standing there, it was like high school, of course it was normally Eleanor asking if she could sit down. Meredith was the popular one, not Eleanor, she was the nerd.

"Sure," she laughed

"What?" Meredith said as she sat down "you not mad at me now?"

"When was I mad at you?" Eleanor asked, confused

"When I told you... about..." Meredith faltered her voice going quiet

"What? Why would I be mad at _you_? It wasn't you fault!"

"But... when I told you... you looked so angry... I mean... I thought..."

"I wasn't mad at _you_! I was mad at him! But then you bolted, and I didn't get a chance to talk to you again, you kept avoiding me. I thought you were angry with _me_!"

"So you not mad at me?"

"Only if you're not mad at me."

They smiled, and began talking, like nothing had ever happened.

* * *

Derek Morgan was confused. Why had Reid ran out so fast?

"Hey," Emily came up to him

"Hey Emily." He replied

"Where did Reid go?" she asked

"Dunno, he said something about looking around, seeing the sights, then he just ran."

"By himself?"

"Yeah I offered to go with him, but he practically ran away."

"I'll never know what goes on in that genius head of his." Emily laughed, and Derek laughed along with him

"Hey how long is this lunch break?" he asked her

"Erm... I think a half hour."

"Well, you wanna go get some coffee?" he asked her

"Sure, but we don't know any good coffee places."

"I do." Derek said "I came here a couple times before. And, if I remember correctly, there should be a Starbucks round here."

Emily smiled as he looked out of the window "look, there's one there."

"Ok then. Let's go." Emily said grabbing her jacket

They were walking through the parking lot when Morgan saw something out of the corner of his eye, so he turned to get a clearer look... it was Reid! And someone else, he couldn't see who though, but she saw him. They broke apart and she pulled him into an alley

"What?" Emily looked where Derek was looking, but no-one was there

"I think I just saw why Reid rushed out so quickly."

"A girl?"

"Yeah."

"Oooh! Did you see who? Do we know her?"

"I couldn't see her." Derek said as rain began to fall, heavily.

"Damn, it's raining." They looked up to the sky

"It doesn't look as if it's gonna let up soon." Emily sighed

"Rain check on the coffee?"

Emily laughed

"What?"

"Don't worry," she laughed "sure, rain check on the coffee." She smiled as they walked back into the building.

* * *

"Oops." Lexi smiled

"What?"

"I think one of your friends saw us."

"Who?"

"Erm... I think it was Derek Morgan?" she laughed and bit her lip

He laughed too, but simply said "who cares." And they went back to kissing.

The truth was though, he did care. What was Morgan going to say when they went back in the office? They were trying to keep themselves a secret. They broke apart and sat down on the floor. He went to hold her hand, when he noticed her plaster

"Nice." He commented

"What? Oh! The plaster? Don't tell me you only just noticed!" she said, sliding down next to him

"Well... I was otherwise busy." They laughed

"why have you got a Barbie plaster on?" he asked

"What! You mean turning her into a pirate did nothing?"

"I don't think that adding a beard and an eye patch necessarily turns her into a pirate" he said smiling

"Urgh, it's raining." She groaned

"Not gonna let a little rain get you down?" Spencer said "you don't seem like the type that lets a got get her down."

She laughed "you'd be surprised. I love the rain."

"Then why are you moaning?"

"Because I'm wearing a white top." She sighed "oh well, I have my jacket."

Spencer laughed "how long have you been working in the BAU?"

"Two years."

"Really?" he asked

"Yeah I was twenty five." She said getting out her iPod

"What's with the iPod?"

"Don't know." She said handing him a headphone "it feels like the time for music."

He smiled, "we're hiding in an alley..."

"So? Let's dance!" she said pulling him up.

They danced for three songs, then Lexi looked down at herself, then at Spencer.

She laughed "we're soaked!"

"Not funny." Said Spencer, though he was laughing too "I don't have a change of clothes!"

"Don't worry." She thought for a minute "I might have some of Rob's clothes."

"Who's Rob?" said Reid, not bothering to hide the note of jealousy

"_Agent _Robert Brown worked here. Before Lucas replaced him." She grinned "was that a hint of jealousy I heard?"

"Yeah, you mine." He laughed.

She laughed along with him, "We have to get back." She kissed him

* * *

**A/N: so let's review, Meredith and Eleanor patched things up and are now friends again, Morgan asked Prentiss out for coffee but it rained, and Reid and Lexi went on their date, but just ended up hiding in an alleyway because Morgan saw them. And I hope you enjoyed: D**

**P.S. review please :-)**


	9. You're wet

**Chapter 9**

**You're wet**

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**A/N: so sorry i didn't get this sooner but i have family visiting, i'll try to write the next chapter as soon as i possibly can, sorry**

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"You're wet." Meredith stated

"Really? I didn't notice." She said looking down at herself pretending to be surprised

"Ha ha." Meredith said "_why _are you wet?"

"Because it's raining." She said as she walked into her office

Reid walked in; luckily no-one from his team was there it was just Meredith looking though her desk,

"You're wet too." Meredith looked at him

"Err... thanks? Where's..."

Meredith cut him off "her office" she pointed in the direction Lexi had just headed

"Thanks." He told her, before walking away

* * *

Lexi walked into her office and looked at her desk. She still has paperwork to finish, lovely. She sighed, and went to get the clothes thankful for the fact that her jacket had hidden her see-though top. She found the clothes quickly; she'd remembered exactly where she put them, a benefit of an eidetic memory. She smiled.

"You have an office?" Spencer said

"Yeah, so?"

"Why?"

"Because they had a spare office so we picked straws."I won." She threw some clothes at him,

"Seriously?" Reid stared at the clothes

"Be thankful it's not yellow." She said wrinkling her nose in distaste about the only top she had.

"You don't like yellow?"

"Hate it; did you know that Judas in the bible was often depicted wearing yellow robes? Because it was associated with jealousy greed and treachery?"

"Yes I did know that actually." Spencer smiled "but the symbolic meaning of yellow is hope?"

"Yes. But it still attracts bugs." She smiled as Spencer laughed

"I'm gonna go to the bathroom to get changed but you can get changed in here if you want." She walked out of the room, and Spencer decided not to risk facing his team asking awkward questions. Then again, he would get awkward questions about the change of clothes. Still, he would much rather face them later. He sighed as he began to change.

* * *

Lexi was getting changed when Meredith came in,

"How did it go!" she nearly yelled

"Shut up! You're too loud! Someone could here you, and I'm not discussing it at work." Lexi replied,

"Fine." Meredith moaned "spoilsport." She added under her breath as she walked out

"I heard that!" Lexi laughed, knowing that her friend didn't mean it. She began to put on her yellow t-shirt when someone else came in,

It was that blonde agent, what was her name? Lexi racked her brains; it began with a J, Josie? No Jennifer! That was it, Jennifer Jereau

"Oh, sorry." Jenifer blushed

"Don't worry," Lexi half smiled "stupid rain."

"Spence got caught in the rain too."

Spence? Since when did anyone call Spencer, Spence? Then again she'd only known him for a day.

"Did he?" Lexi tried to pretend like this wasn't bothering her

"Yeah, you didn't see him come in?"

"No." She lied "Meredith might have though; I'll have to ask her." Lexi looked at herself in the mirror, her hair was a bit messed up, but she could just put it into a new ponytail, other than that, and her yellow top, she looked ok.

"Well then... err... I'll be off... err... bye." Lexi walked quickly out of the room. Was there something going on between Spencer and her? That thought lingered, was she just some fling? Was Jenifer the love of his life? She had a ring on his finger, were they _married_? It took a lot of self control to stop Lexi from crying. Why should she cry? Lexi reasoned with herself. She'd only known him for a _day_! Granted it was one of the happiest days of her life but still, _one day._

_

* * *

_

She went down and sat at her desk, looking straight ahead.

"whoa, I know that look, what happened." Meredith slid next to Lexi

"am I that predictable?"

"yes, now spill." Meredith commanded

"is Spencer married?"

"I didn't see a ring... try this." Meredith leaned over and began typing on the computer

"what are you...?" Lexi trailed off as she saw what Meredith was typing

"Facebook?"

"Uh huh." She said typing his name "there you go, Spencer Reid, relationship status. Single."

"Ok?" Lexi began typing

"Who are you searching?" Meredith asked "Jennifer Jereau?" she answered her own question "Why?"

"Don't laugh, but I thought she was married to Spencer."

Meredith bit her cheek to stop her from laughing

"Oh, married to William LaMontagne Jr."

"See, nothing to worry about."

"You know, looking up members of my team isn't really the best way to get on our good sides."

Lexi gasped and clothed the window. She turned around looking shameful

"Sorry." She looked up to see Spencer smiling

"Wow, feeling threatened already?"

"I'll leave you too alone, and remember, don't do anything I wouldn't do." Meredith smiled as she got up

"That gives me a pretty wide berth."

"Don't go there." Meredith called over her shoulder

"Why are you looking up JJ?"

"I'll tell you if you promise not to laugh."

"I promise." He looked at her.

He seemed sincere so Lexi told him "I thought you were married to JJ."

Spencer couldn't help himself, he laughed

"You promised!" Lexi accused, though she was laughing herself

Then Jacob walked in

"Time to get back to work." He through an apple at Lexi then another one at Spencer,

"Eat." He said simply

"Yes dad." Lexi snickered as Jacob walked into the conference room

"He's your dad?" Spencer was surprised

"No! He just acts like my dad." She took a bite out of her apple

"Where's your real dad?"

"Dead, died in a car accident with my mom. You?"

"My dad left when I was ten, my mom is in Bennington sanatorium, she has schizophrenia."

"Wait, isn't that..."

"Genetic. Yeah." Spencer looked down; Lexi saw that this was something that bothered him

"Normally it takes an environmental stressor though."

"I know... this job though..." he trailed off

"How long have you been doing this job?"

"A few years."

"Suffered a psychological break yet?"

"Not technically."

"Well then."

"You don't mind?" he said looking at her

"Why would I?"

"Don't know..."

"We should get back to work." Lexi said, finishing her apple "come on."

* * *

**A/N: hope you liked, please review. :-)**


	10. Confrontation

**Chapter 10**

**Confrontations**

**A/N: ahhhh, we're her the big number 10! Ha ha ha, so sorry it's taking me such a long time to upload but anyway: enjoy**

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"Ok teams, let get some rest, back here at eight." Jacob said as everyone began to get up

"Hey Reid, can I talk to you?" Morgan said "alone." He added when he saw that some other people were slowing down.

"Ok?" Spencer at back down and waited until everyone had left

"So, what do you want to talk about?" Spencer asked him

"I saw you in the parking lot at lunchtime."

"Oh... that... err did you see who I was with?"

"No..." Morgan paused as Reid sighed in relief "but I have a pretty good guess."

"Who?"

"Lexi."

"And what makes you guess that?"

Morgan raised his eyebrows "you were in a room with eight FBI profilers. Did you think that someone _wouldn't _notice?"

"Well... err... more of hoped actually..."

Morgan was tempted to laugh at that "you _hoped _that in a room of profilers that no-one would notice that you were sleeping with another member of the team?"

"I'm not sleeping with her!" Reid said indignantly

Morgan raised his eyebrows in disbelief

Seeing this Reid nearly yelled "I'm serious!"

"Dude, you two are practically screaming 'I'm getting laid'"

"No, we're not! Come on Derek, I haven't even known her for two days!"

"Fine, I believe you."

"Thank you! Will you get off my back now?"

"No."

"What?" Reid asked in disbelief

"There's more to Lexi that you know."

"I know that! But who doesn't have secrets?"

"Did Lexi say that to you?"

"Yes." Reid paused as Morgan's eyebrows shot up, again. "Why should you know anything about Lexi? Or care?"

"I _care _because you're like a brother to me."

"Why should you know anything about Lexi, _you _met her the same time as me."

"What _do_ you know about her?"

"More than you!" Reid retorted and stormed out

Morgan sighed as Rossi came into the room

"What was that about?" he asked Morgan

"Nothing."

"It didn't look like nothing; we haven't seen Reid that angry since... well ever."

"Don't."

"I'm guessing you confronted him about Lexi?"

"You saw it too?"

"I don't think anyone didn't. They were trying too hard to hide it." Rossi laughed

"Yeah... look I don't wanna talk about it."

"Ok. We're leaving soon though, you might wanna hurry up."

* * *

"I'll see you back at my house. And don't worry about Morgan." Lexi reached up to hug Spencer

"I can't help but worry. He said things, things that maybe he shouldn't have said." He looked into the distance

"Don't worry. It couldn't have been that bad." She let go of him "I'll see you back at my house." She put on her helmet and walked out.

* * *

'One new e-mail'

_Where are you? I'm lost _

_Spencer x_

Lexi smiled, she thought she was going to get a message like this soon enough

_Try first floor, door at the end of the main corridor _

_Lexi x_

'One new message'

_Ok_

Lexi laughed

"What room is this?" he said opening the door

"My chill out room." Lexi said getting up and hugging Spencer

"You have a chill out room." Reid asked in disbelief

"The room wasn't being used for anything else. So I put a TV in here."

"What are you watching?"

"_Honey_, you heard of it? Premier was on 24 November 2003, Jessica Alba?" she waited "nothing?"

"Can't say I've seen it."

"Well, you probably wouldn't have, it's one of those dance movies."

"Oh, so you're into movies like that?"

"Yeah, when I was little I wanted to be a professional dancer."

"What made you become a profiler?"

"I don't really know." She slumped onto the sofa "I grew up I guess, realised that my chances were slim and decided to do something different. I still dance though, sometimes."

Spencer smiled, and sat down next to her as she restarted the movie.

When it had finished Lexi looked at her watch

"Oh! It's past one! We really should get some sleep." She looked at Spencer, he was already fast asleep. She smiled; it would be a pity of someone woke him,

"Didn't you just _love _that ending!" she said right into his ear

"Whoa! Wait? What...?" dazed and disoriented he looked wildly round the room "oh yeah, the ending was... yeah... really good."

"You didn't see it did you?"

"Well... no." He confessed "I fell asleep after she put down the deposit for that commercial property."

She sighed, "It's past one. Go get some sleep." She ushered him out of the room.

"Bye." She kissed him

"Bye." And he left the room.

Lexi waited then began to make her way to her own room, to get some sleep. But Meredith might be waiting there, to hear all the details between her and Spencer. No, Meredith shouldn't be there, not if she had any common sense a normal person would have gone to sleep by now.

She opened the door to her room slowly, hoping that Meredith wasn't there. Lexi sighed with relief, she wasn't. Meredith did have some common sense after all. Lexi was only awake enough to change into her pyjamas, and she fell asleep before her head even hit the pillow

* * *

_They were circling each other wondering who was going to make the first move. Who was going to strike first? It was him. He started it. He lunged at her, grabbing her by her t-shirt _

"_I'm sorry." He said as he thrust his knee into her stomach, she doubled over as he loosened his grip. Panting heavily, she'd just had all her breath knocked out of her; she began to make the next move. This went on for several minutes, tentative fighting, only making one move at a time, then he got bolder, began hitting her twice instead of just once, so she retaliated. Then the fight became quicker, faster more furious. Until he got her hands around her throat._

_He squeezed cutting off her air supply and at that moment, she knew that he was going to kill her; she knew that she was going to die, and it scared her. She didn't want to die, she wanted to go home. She began seeing spots, so this is what dying is like, no white gates, no angels, just... nothing. That what scared her the most, was it just nothing? Was nothing all she was going to get? She fell to the floor seeing nothing, hearing nothing._

_He put his foot on her chest_

"_I'm really sorry." He said and he pushed down with his foot_

_

* * *

_

Lexi woke up, almost screaming, damned nightmares. She looked at her clock

04:00

Three hours, fantastic. She sighed and got out of bed. She might as well head to the library. She didn't bother to turn on the light's she had her torch

When she got there she saw that someone was already there

"Spencer?" she guessed,

They turned around

"No." He answered

"Derek, I knew this was going to happen."

* * *

**A/N: well I hope you liked it, sorry it's taking me forever to update but my family is still over and my cousin keeps taking my laptop :-(**

**But anyways, what do you think Lexi meant when she said that she knew this was going to happen? What does she think is going to happen? Guess by reviewing pleeeeeeaaaasssseeee**


	11. Secrets Revealed

**Chapter 11**

**Secrets Revealed**

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"Derek!" she ran up and hugged him "it's been forever!"

"I know!" he hugged her back "how've you been? Last time I saw you, you were seventeen and heading off to university! Now look at you"

"Good, yeah." she let go of him "well I finished university when I was twenty. I have my PHD now, so I'm technically Doctor, but I don't really use that term." She smiled "after I graduated I travelled the world for a couple of years. That was amazing; I need to show you the photos."

"By yourself?"

"No Meredith and Eleanor came with me... for a bit of it. But I liked it. I met new people. Course it was more fun when I had people I knew, but I could pick up the languages easily, you know, little miss eidetic memory."

Derek laughed at the nickname that he had given to her over ten years ago. She remembered it, of course she would, she was little miss eidetic memory.

"I have the photos here actually. Err..." she began looking in the bookcases "here they are." She pulled out six photo albums

"Whoa, _six_?"

"Yeah I went travelling for a year all over the world. One for every continent... apart from Antarctica. I didn't really feel like travelling around there." she smiled

Derek looked at the albums; all six were leather-bound, with the names of continents in large gold lettering on the front.

"Fancy." He commented opening up the one titled 'Europe' on the first page there was her, Meredith and Eleanor standing in front of the Eiffel tower, and another picture of then sitting at a table eating crepes "France?"

"Yeah, well that's in Europe isn't it?"

"You did well Kay."

"You know you can't call me Kay when anyone else is here right?"

"I know, I know. Your Lexi now." He sighed

"Don't go there Derek. I know you don't like me... not being me... but I can't do it. I tried, I did, I really did. But I had to walk around with people who _studied _the case, studied _me_! Wrote papers about _me_! I couldn't walk around... knowing that people knew _everything _about me!"

Derek sighed again she had a point,

"I tried, I tried not to notice the people staring, the whispers. But I couldn't do it Derek I really couldn't. So I moved university. And enrolled under the name witness protection gave me. And I hated doing it, I really did. But I couldn't be... Caitlin, when I was doing what I wanted to do." She smiled sadly "You're probably disappointed in me now aren't you?"

"Why would I be disappointed in you? Look at where you are now! Look at the house you live in! Look at your job! How can _anyone _e disappointed in that?"

"Thanks Derek." She smiled and hugged him "you're the best... sort of big brother." She looked up at him and smiled

"I'm not your brother."

"You're as close as." She said fiercely as he chuckled softly

"So tell me the rest." He said after they broke apart "what happened after you went travelling?"

"I got a job as a cop. Then as soon as there was an opening here, I took it. That's it." she smiled

"That's it? Come on! Tell me about being a cop!"

"You know what it's like to be a cop."

"Ok so tell me about your partner."

"Seriously?"

"Yes!"

"Ok. So I worked as a cop for three years and I had two partners. The first was Annabel Williams, and I worked with her for a year, until she got married and quit her job to be a full time mom."

"Did you keep in touch?"

"We e-mail maybe once a month. But now I mean she has her mom friends. She doesn't need her work friends anymore."

"And the other?" he prompted

"Matthew Burnsfield... married with two kids, one girl one boy, Olivia and James lovely kids, I looked after them while him and Ellie, his wife, went out to dinner a couple of times. I worked with him for two years, we had stakeouts together, and he was there when I got shot."

"Whoa hold up, you got shot?"

"Yeah, just in my stomach, don't worry that was like four years ago. Anyway, then, a day before he was about to take some vacation time, to go to England with his kids. We were in a car accident. We got called to a robbery, in a liquor store. Violent attacker. But something we could easily handle. So we were making our way there when someone ran out in front of us. Matthew swerved to avoid them and... We crashed." Lexi shuddered as she remembered

* * *

"_Copy." Matthew said into the radio_

"_Liquor store robbery... that's boring." Lexi sighed as Matthew began driving _

"_Yeah well, I'm going on holiday tomorrow I don't want anything too serious."_

"_True." Lexi smiled "so you're going to England?"_

"_Yeah, we're going to go to Canterbury, Ellie wants to see the cathedral, and all of the other historical sites..."_

"_Well that's a history professor for you." _

"_Then to London, for the rest of the two weeks, going to see the west end, and Oxford street."_

"_I'd recommend going on the London eye. It's amazing!" Lexi enthused "totally worth the wait. Oh and Ellie would probably like the tower of London and the kids might like the London dungeons, I haven't been to the London dungeons personally, but apparently it's really good."_

"_Now are you sure you don't work for the holiday company?"_

"_No! I just know a lot about it. I went there on my round the world trip. I told you about it remember." _

"_Oh yeah... I'll have to think about your advice."_

"_MATT!" Lexi yelled "LOOK OUT!" she pointed in front of the car where some had just ran out, Matthew swerved to avoid them, then slammed down the brakes, _

"_Lexi!"_

"_What?"_

"_The brakes don't work!"_

"_WHAT?" Lexi yelled as they slammed into the wall_

_

* * *

_

"He's paralysed now, can't move his legs, at all. Stuck in a chair for the rest of his life, because of that stupid bastard. I get off with a broken arm, a broken arm! He was the one with kids; he was the one with family. And he gets a broken spine." Tears were glistening in her eyes "it's not fair!"

"Hey," Derek said seeing the tears "it's okay, it wasn't your fault."

"I've never been n a car since. Did you know that? I hate being in a car now. I mean now, I just stick to my motorbike, it feels safer."

"How does a motorbike feel safer?"

With a watery chuckle Lexi said "because I can jump off if it."

Derek laughed softly, typical Caitlin. Lexi he corrected himself

"So does anyone else know about... you being... Caitlin?"

"Meredith does, you do... Jacob knows that Lexi isn't my real name... but other than that. No, no-one else knows."

"Tell Spencer,"

"What?"

"Tell Spencer. Tell Spencer that you're Caitlin,"

"Why would I do that?"

Morgan raised his eyebrows

"So I guess you know?"

"Yeah, tell him, he'll understand."

"I don't believe you."

"I've worked with him for almost five years I think I know"

"Fine."

"Now I'm going to get some sleep, I suggest you do the same." Derek said leaving the room,

Lexi waited until he was gone, ten grabbed the photo albums and took them up to her room with her, they would be something to do while she was awake.

* * *

**A/N: oooohhhhh, you probably expected that coming! Ha ha ha. **

**Now looking through this I thought I might need to clear up the dates **

**The year is 2015ish and the Quantico team are the same age as they are now... so that should clear up confusion (if there was any) oki so I hope you enjoyed. Did you see that coming? Did you think that Lexi was Caitlin? Tell me! xD**


	12. The Idea

**Chapter 12 **

**The Idea**

**A/N: thanks to everyone who commented and story alerted, it means a lot :-)**

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"I don't know what to do!" Eleanor exclaimed both teams were in the conference room, still working on the case. Trying to figure out where the victims were being kept, before they had to give them money

"What?"

"How are we going to find her, we have, not even two days till this ransom thing and nothing!"

"There has to be something." Prentiss reassured her

"If I may..." Lucas interjected "what if, we were to use someone who _looks _like Caitlin... for example, Lexi."

As soon as Lexi heard this she panicked, she couldn't face... them again.

"I mean look..." he pointed to a picture of what they think Caitlin could look like now "who does that look extraordinarily like? Doctor Alexandra Hart." Lucas answered his own question

"Doctor?" JJ said

"Yeah, did I not mention that?" Lexi said trying to act normal

"No you didn't... what your PHD in?"

"Criminal psychology..."

"Why..." Rossi began to ask a question but Lexi cut him off

"Because I never introduce myself as Doctor Alexandra Hart. It's not something I do."

"Ok?"

Lexi sighed, maybe now they had forgotten Lucas' suggestion

"So Davidson, you say that we should send Lexi in, _instead _of Caitlin?" Aaron looked at the photo

No such luck,

"Yes, it's a perfectly reasonable idea considering how much they look alike."

Lexi tried to stay calm while everyone else was considering the options. She went to have some of her coffee, but saw that her hand was shaking, so she just sat there

"It could work." Aaron said looking at Lexi, who was sitting there staring at the table she did look a lot like Caitlin

"Why don't we ask Lexi?" Emily said seeing how scared Lexi looked, everyone looked at Lexi

"What?" she said

"Will you go in instead of Caitlin?"

"Err... ok then." Lexi tried to keep her voice even

"Well then that's sorted... we don't need to look for Caitlin, we've finished our profiles and they've been released to the media. Tomorrow we'll call off the search for Caitlin, and then all that's left to do is the exchange." Jacob smiled, thinking that this would all be finally over.

Derek, seeing the look on lexis face decided to interject "maybe this won't be a good idea though... what if they find out that she isn't Caitlin?"

"It's the closest thing we have, unless you want the rest of them to die." Lucas retorted

"Who said anything about dying?" Derek squared up to him

"Surely you didn't think that they were going to let them live if they _didn't _have the money, did you?"

"Seems to me like you know a little bit too much about our unsubs."

"Seems to me like you _don't _know enough... you were the cop that found Caitlin, weren't you?"

"So?"

"And you were the person that tried to take part in the investigation, am I correct?"

"Yes I did try to take part in the investigation, what's the problem with that?"

"And weren't you the one that taught her 'social skills'?"

"She was locked up for four years!"

"I think you know where she is... I think you hiding her... if you ask me..."

"Stop it!" Lexi yelled as she ran out the room

There was an awkward silence

"I should... probably... go look for her..." Meredith said quickly leaving the room

"Lucas, in my office, now." Jacob commanded

Lucas grudgingly walked out following Jacob

"And could I talk to you Morgan. Alone."

* * *

"What the hell was that Lucas?"

"What the hell was what?"

"You know what I'm talking about."

"No I don't. "

Jacob ran a hand through his hair "the board didn't want you to have this job, because of you... history. But I specifically requested for you."

"So?"

"I wouldn't take anyone else... and I almost lost my job... don't make me regret my decision."

Lucas just sneered

* * *

"What is going on Morgan?"

"What do you mean?"

"You knew Caitlin?

"Yes I did. She went to the youth centre when I was there,"

"So you knew the victim..."

"Don't call her that." Derek interrupted

"Ok so you knew Caitlin before the abduction,"

"Yes."

"And you were the one that found her."

"Yes."

"Do you know where she is Derek?"

"No."

"Don't lie to me Derek."

"I'm not."

"If you are you'll be obstructing a federal investigation."

Derek sighed

"I'll ask you again Derek. Do you know where Caitlin is?"

'Forgive me Kay' Derek thought before he gave the answer

"Yeah Hotch; I do know where she is."

* * *

"Lexi?" Meredith called, no answer, she tried again "Lexi?"

"In here." A small voice called from the ladies room answered

Meredith walked in to see her friend sitting on the floor crying

"Oh Lexi." Meredith sighed sadly "are you ok?" she slid down to sit next to her

"Does it look like I'm ok?" Lexi replied angrily, and then a sob ripped through her chest "I'm sorry."

"You really don't want to do this do you?"

Lexi shook her head "but I have to..." as another sob ripped through her chest

Meredith sighed "you don't."

"No I don't want to do it but I _have _to do it. I owe it to them."

"You don't owe anything to anyone."

"Yes I do!"

"Well then... let's just sit here and breathe."

* * *

**A/N: ok so lets review, Lexi is actually Caitlin, who met Morgan in the youth centre in Chicago. And Lexi is going to be Caitlin and give the unsubs the ransom money. Morgan and Meredith know that Lexi is Caitlin but no-one else does. Lexi is in a relationship with Spencer but Spencer doesn't know that Lexi is Caitlin, and Morgan wants Lexi to tell him. that should be it... I think... wow more complicated that I thought it would be :D**


	13. The Truth Comes Out

**Chapter 13**

**The truth comes out**

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**A/N: Thank to everyone who commented and reviewed. I did change one thing if you can't be bothered to read the whole chapter again, i'll tell it at the end :) sorry!**

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'One new message'

_Have you told him yet?_

Lexi sighed; she kept getting messages from Derek asking about whether she had told Spencer about... her secret. She began typing back

_No not yet. I'll tell him tonight_

_Kay. _

Lexi sighed, tomorrow was the exchange day, and Lexi was supposed to spend the day in briefing and then prepare the money. But she was taking a break

_You said that yesterday._

_Tell him before tomorrow _

He had a point, she did say that yesterday, and she didn't tell him. She began to type then she got another message

_And don't even think about saying 'but he might not understand.' He will understand._

Lexi smiled, Derek knew her too well

_Fine_

She sighed; she was going to have to tell him.

"Lexi come on in here, you need to do the money." Jacob called from the conference room. Lexi got up, time to get this over with

"Bag. Money. Enjoy."

Lexi rolled her eyes and tried to smile, but she couldn't.

"It's gonna be ok Lexi." Jacob reassured her, "we're not gonna let anything happen. You know that." He left the room as Lexi began packing the money into the bag. All one hundred thousand dollars of it.

She was packing in the last wad of money into the bag when Spencer came in

"Spencer!"

"Hey... so, err Derek told me I should talk to you."

Lexi sighed "yeah..." she sat down and then gestured for him to do the same "so... you remember when I told you about... secrets?"

"Yeah."

"So... err... "

"Lexi. Jacob needs you." Meredith poked her head in the door

"Ok. Well I'll talk to you later Spencer."

* * *

"Ok, so we're going to have Agent Morgan and Agent Davidson in an unmarked car here." Jacob pointed on the map of the golden gate bridge that was pinned on the wall "and Agent Prentiss and technical analyst Chen will be here watching the security footage. Doctor Reid, Agent Rossi and Agent Chen will be here as well listening to..."

Lexi cut him off "you're going to bug me? I thought we were pushing it with the car."

"It's just a small microphone."

"Fine."

"So as I was saying Doctor Reid, Agent Rossi, and Agent Chen will be here listening in. And Agent Hotchner, Agent Jereau and I will also be out on the bridge, here, here and here." He pointed to three different places on the map.

"Okay." Lexi said memorising where everyone was going to be, she wanted to get this over with so she could go and talk to Spencer

"You'll enter here, and wait here. After you give them the money, and they give you the victims, you'll leave through here where at the end where there will be an ambulance waiting."

"Right, ok, got it."

"You sure?"

"Yeah," she stood up and began pointing to the map "Agent Morgan and Agent Davidson in an unmarked car here, you Agent Hotchner and Agent Jereau will also be out on the bridge, here, here and here. Everyone else will be here watching security footage and listening in. I'll enter here, do the exchange then leave here where there's an ambulance waiting." She pointed to the relevant places "I think I got It." she smiled

"Ok then, take a ten minute break then we'll get you fitted for the microphone."

"It's tomorrow at midnight, why are we prepping now?"

"Because if something goes wrong we have tomorrow to fix it."

"Fine."

"Ok then, go take your break."

"Ok"

* * *

Lexi was sitting in the break room drinking coffee when Spencer came in

"Spencer! I was just about to look for you."

"Well you found me," he poured himself some coffee

"Yeah... so you remember, before I got called out." She started "I was talking about secrets?"

"Yeah."

"Ok... so... you know I told you that I have... secrets?"

"Where's this going?"

"Well... erm... Alexandra Hart isn't my... real name."

"What?"

"Erm... my name isn't Lexi... I'm err..."

"So you lied to me?"

"Just about my name!"

"But you lied?"

Lexi sighed "yes... but I have a good reason!"

"Really and what would that be? What reason could you possibly have to lie to everyone about your name?"

"It's complicated."

"It's complicated? Really? You don't say!"

Lexi stayed silent

"Tell me. What is your real name? Why did you lie? Who knows? Tell me!"

"It's Caitlin!" Lexi almost yelled "Caitlin Lamden"

"You want me to believe that you are a girl that was abducted when she was seven."

"Yes!

"Why?"

"Because it's the truth!"

"Prove it."

"Ok... Caitlin Elizabeth Lamden. Born on the 12 of September 1989. Mother died due to complications with childbirth. I have a sister, she's a few years older than me, but now I don't know where she is. Abducted on my birthday. My sister, Jen, my dad and I went to the bowling alley, I went to the toilet by myself and that was the last time I ever saw them."

"You could get that from the case file."

"Fine." Lexi rolled up her sleeve "could I get these from a case file?" she revealed scars that ripped all up her arm.

"No,"

"See, I'm telling the truth!"

"You could've gotten those scars anywhere, why do you even want to tell me this _now_?"

"Because Derek told me to."

"Oh so Morgan knows this?"

"Yes!"

"Screw this." Spencer said before walking out the room

Lexi sank back into her seat

After what seemed like an hour, though it was probably only a minute, Derek walked in

"What happened there?"

She looked at him for a while then got up to walk out, just before she left she answered his question

"Your. Advice. Sucks."

* * *

**A/N: Ok so I hope you enjoyed :-)**

**so i changed the age of her sister rather than the sister being only one year older she's 'a few' the exact difference is yet to be specified :) so sorry!**


	14. Memories

**Chapter 14**

**Memories**

**A/N: I'm so sorry! I had complete and utter writers block for this! I couldn't think of anything to write about! So in the end I settled with some explaining about Derek and Caitlin, there are a lot of flashbacks in this chapter, three I think, so enjoy!**

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Lexi was sitting in the room waiting for her microphone, when Derek walked in

"Kay, you don't have to do this."

"Yeah I do... besides, no turning back now. I have," she looked at her watch "two hours."

"Still..."

"Still nothing, I have to do this."

"I have your microphone here."

"I thought technicians had to put it on me."

"I asked to do it, I wanted to talk to you, try and persuade you that you didn't need to do this."

"I have to do this... can we just not talk about it?"

"Yeah, ok then"

There was silence for a few minutes until Lexi said "do you know where my dad is? And where Jen is?"

"No I don't, I wish I did."

"Yeah." Lexi looked away with longing "I wish I did to."

"Ok, how about I take some time off after this case then, we'll look for them, you and me."

Lexi smiled "yeah." She hugged him

"Okay, your microphone is all done."

"Great," she sighed "let's go get this over with."

Lexi left the room before Derek. She walked past Spencer who was sitting with a cup of coffee by the radio, which would soon pick up her voice, she sighed and looked at him, maybe after all this was over they could try again, he glanced at her with cold eyes, then again... maybe not.

"Okay Lexi, you ready to go?" Jacob stood in front of her

"Yeah." She followed him out to the car.

* * *

The car journey was spent in silence. Lexi didn't want to talk; she didn't want to do anything.

"Okay, I'll drop you off here, and then I'll get into position. Wait till it's time, you have the watch?"Lexi nodded "then you know the rest."

She got out of the car with the bag on her shoulder, and looked at her watch, half an hour to go.

She sat down and began rifling through her memories. There were so many she probably wouldn't be done by the time she needed to go. She smiled, and then decided to remember some of the happiest times

* * *

There was the time when she and Jen had first met Derek, she was five, Jen was thirteen and Derek was fourteen

"_Jenny! Wait for me!"Caitlin ran up behind Jenifer. Jenifer stopped and looked over just in time to see her sister trip over _

"_Kay!" she said, trying to catch her sister_

"_OW!" Caitlin complained tears springing into her eyes _

"_Don't cry Katy." Jenifer sat next to her sister and tried to comfort her "it'll be okay. Let's see what we did shall we?"She rolled up the, now ripped, jeans that Caitlin was wearing, to reveal a long cut running up her leg,_

"_Oh Katy," Jennifer sighed, looking around "how did you do that?" then she saw, broken glass littered the pavement _

"_Need some help?" _

"_No thanks, we got this." Jenifer looked up meeting eyes with the stranger looking over them _

"_That cut looks nasty."_

"_We live near, don't worry."_

"_You don't"_

"_So what, you've been watching us?"_

"_No, I was visiting a friend when I saw you two come out, you were going my way so..."_

"_Where do you live?"_

"_Over there." he pointed to a block of flats "at least come in so you can fix up your sister." He knelt down "hey sweetie, what your name?"_

"_Caitlin." She sniffled _

"_Caitlin? Wow that's a pretty name. My names Derek."_

"_Derek? That's a pretty name too." she smiled through her tears as Derek and Jenifer laughed_

"_You're funny! So Caitlin, do you wanna come over so me and your sister can clean you up? You don't wanna get any more blood your super cool jeans now do we? Your mommy might get upset."_

_Caitlin looked up at him "I don't have a mom, only a dad."_

"_Really?" he lifted her up "I have a mom, but I don't have a dad. So I guess we're even. Come on let's get you cleaned up."_

"_Okay. Come on jenny!"_

"_Jenny?"_

"_Yeah. My sister Jenifer." _

"_Okay then." And they all walked off in the direction of Derek's flat _

Lexi smiled as she remembered being Caitlin, just Caitlin. No Lexi.

* * *

Another one of her favourite memories was when she was six

_Caitlin was bored; she didn't have anyone to play with. Her sister was spending a lot of time with Derek; Caitlin's best guess was that they began dating. She sighed... then remembered about the air vent to Jenifer's room, it was connected to hers, all she had to do was stand on the bookcase, and she smiled then went to spy on her sister_

_Caitlin looked through the metal grill to see her sister and Derek sitting on the bed_

"_I'm worried Jen,"_

"_Why?"_

"_Have you heard about the recent kidnappings?"_

"_Yeah, who hasn't?" she nuzzled her head into his neck_

"_They're so close. What if someone we know gets kidnapped?"_

"_It won't, how many times have you seen something on the news and thought, 'that could be me'?"_

"_A lot."_

"_Has it ever happened to you?"_

"_No." He looked away, Caitlin thought that something was wrong, whenever he was talking to Jen he never took his eyes off her, and even when he wasn't talking to her, he still stared at her._

_She looked up at him "what's up?" Caitlin smiled, even Jen noticed it _

"_Nothing," he reassured her as he lent down to kiss her, _

_Caitlin mimicked vomiting, to her kissing was disgusting, she couldn't understand why anyone would want to exchange saliva... then again, she was six._

_Jenifer began to take off Derek's shirt, maybe now was the time to leave and go play chess by her._

Lexi smiled remembering the love in their eyes as they stared at each other. That was one of her fondest memories, seeing her sister in love, with their closest friend.

* * *

She smiled running through memories in her head, going to the fair, him teaching her football, her teaching him chess, her Derek and Jen making cakes for a bake sale, to raise money for the boy that was killed.

Another one of her favourite memories was when Derek found her

_Derek was driving around in his police cruiser, looking out for anything suspicious... nothing, it was a cold, boring night, he parked the car and looked at the picture that he always carried with him, it was a picture of them when they were making cakes, Caitlin had cake mixture all over her face where she had tried mixing, while him and Jen had flour all over their clothes, smiling at the camera. His mother had walked in on them and couldn't resist taking the photo, one of his fondest memories; he smiled sadly, wondering where Caitlin was now, when he saw something move._

_It looked like a bundle of blankets. It was probably just a homeless person, Derek was wondering what it was as he walked towards it, it could be a litter of puppies, that happened right? People found litters of puppies, as he got closer he heard someone try to muffle their crying,_

"_Excuse me?" he said reaching for the blanket "are you okay?" he pulled the blanket off revealing her face _

"_Caitlin?"_

"_Don't hurt me! Please!" she stared at him without seeing, she was so terrified _

"_Caitlin it's me!"_

"_Don't hurt me, don't hurt me." She kept chanting those three words over and over; it was killing him to see her like this _

"_Caitlin! Look at me!" he began to reach out to touch her, but then realised it probably wasn't the best idea _

"_Derek help me! Please!"_

"_I'm here sweetie, I'm here."_

"_Derek?"_

"_Caitlin?"_

"_Help me." She reached out for him and he picked her up, just like he did eight years ago, and carried her to safety._

Lexi didn't know why that was in her favourite memories, she was terrified. Yet somehow it was one of her best memories. She looked at her watch, five minutes, time to leave.

* * *

**A/N: hope you enjoyed again I'm soooooo sorry about not posting sooner I feel soooo bad, but my mum decided to take my laptop away at night (which is when I do most of my writing). I'm so sorry.**

**Okay, so let me know what you think, do you think that the exchange is going to go smoothly? Do you think that Lexi is right about **_**having **_**to do it? Do you think Lucas knows? Is that why he suggested using her? Lots of questions :-)**


	15. The Exchange

**Chapter 15**

**The Exchange**

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**A/N: to make up for my lack of posting, I managed to get chapters out two days in a row! :-) thanks for the story alerts and reviews :-)**

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Lexi walked onto the bridge, trying to keep calm .all she needed to do was hand over some money, she probably didn't even need to talk to them, she tried to reassure herself. Not that it worked, she was still scared, but she couldn't show it.

She sighed, best just to get it over with.

She wandered around for a while until someone came up behind her and said

"Caitlin. How nice to see you again!"

She sucked in her breath and turned around to stare into the face that haunted her dreams

"Here's your money." She took the bag off of her shoulder "now where are they?"

"Over here." He led her to the back of a black van and opened the door

Lexi smiled, maybe this wasn't going to be so bad after all, she looked in the van "wait... there's no-one in here..." she turned to look at him "where are they?" she was answered by someone hitting her in the stomach.

* * *

Derek sat in the car next to Lucas, an uncomfortable silence filled the car and the tension between them was so thick you could cut it with a knife.

"Can you see her?" Derek asked Lucas

"No."

Derek scanned around "wait, I see her, she's over there." he said pointing

"Yes." Lucas answered. Derek watched her talking to the Unsub and he wished that he had audio

"Hang on. What going on?" he said as Lexi received a blow to the stomach

"I'll go see." Lucas opened the car door

"I'll come with you."

"There's only one person there, I think I can handle that."

"There might be more!"

"Do _you _see more?"

"No"

"Exactly! The more we argue the less time she has. I'll go, you stay in the car, if they drive off be ready to chase." He got out and began running towards Lexi. Derek shifted into the driver's seat and reached to turn on the ignition, but there wasn't a key.

"Damn" he cursed as he began to look around for the key. When he looked up to see what was happening to Lexi, he saw Lucas throwing something over the side of the bridge, something silver and shiny. The keys! "What the...?" he began, just to see Lucas catch up with the Unsub. Lexi was reduced to the floor by now

"Caitlin!" he yelled forgetting that most of the other agents could hear him

"You know you're not going to get to her." Lucas slid in front of him

"How can you be so sure." he said

"Because, I have a gun" Lucas said brandishing it at him

"So do I."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Derek said reaching for his holster, his sighed putting his hands up as he realised he left his gun in the car.

"Exactly what I thought. Now don't even think about going to save her, she's ours now."

* * *

Spencer was pissed, not at Lexi. At himself. He over reacted, he'd upset Lexi, the most beautiful woman in the world, and he didn't say sorry. After he left the room he's immediately felt guilty, he wanted to go back in there and apologise, he didn't care if she didn't like him anymore, he just wanted to say sorry. Now listening to Lexi being... beaten... he couldn't take it. He walked out of the room, guilty tears brimming in his eyes,

"Spencer?" Meredith said

"Sorry..." he apologised

"Don't worry... "

"I should, we had a fight, last night... I over reacted about something she said, and now... this..."

"It's not your fault."

"Why did you follow me?"

"Because, whenever someone hears the person they love being hurt like that... I think that they would need some comforting, don't you?"

"Thanks."

"She'll be okay, Spencer... we'll make sure of that."

* * *

Derek sat on the ground, his head in his hands. How could he let that happen? How could he have just stood there while Lucas helped the Unsub beat Lexi? How could he not have done anything while they threw her into the van, like she was a rag doll? Guilt overwhelmed him as tears fell down his face.

"Derek?"

He looked up at JJ "I stood here... and I watched..."

"You couldn't do anything. He had a gun."

"I _should _have done something!"

"You couldn't have though... it wasn't your fault."

"It was! _I _was the one that let **him**" he spat out the word, not wanting to say his name aloud "go and _help_! It wasn't anyone else, it was me!"

"You couldn't have known, none of us was expecting that to happen."

"It's not fair! She's suffered enough in her life..." he trailed off realising that he shouldn't have said that

"You mean that she's Katy, I mean, Caitlin" she corrected herself

"How do you know?"

"You yelled her name..."

"Oh... hey JJ... do you mind sitting with me for a while?"

"No." She said as she slid down beside him

* * *

Emily ended the call, and sighed... how was she going to tell everyone that Lexi was Caitlin, and she'd been taken, again? How was she going to tall Spencer, she'd seen him run out, how was she going to tell him what had happened? She walked into the conference room...

"So that was Hotch..."

"Is Lexi all right?" Spencer asked hope filling his eyes

"... no, Spencer, no she's not alright, well she's been abducted... again"

"What do you mean _again_?" the question didn't come from Spencer as she expected, it came from Rossi

"Her real name is Caitlin," Spencer murmured

"What?"

"Her real name is Caitlin." He repeated louder "Caitlin Lamden."

"The girl that was abducted when she was seven?" Rossi confirmed

"Yeah... also, Lucas is one of the unsubs." Prentiss said looking down as Reid ran out the room for the second time that day.

* * *

Derek had been sitting there with JJ for half an hour when Derek finally broke the silence

"You called her Katy."

"What?"

"The only person I know who called her Katy was her sister."

"Lots of people must have called her Katy."

"No, when I tried she wouldn't let anyone, I tried but she yelled at me" he smiled sadly at that memory "so I ended up calling her Kay, anyone else would call her Caitlin, if not Kait."

JJ looked at him as sadness filed her eyes

"You're her sister... you're Jen."

* * *

**A/N: so I hope you enjoyed :-) **

**So let me know what you think. Do you think that JJ really is Jen? **

**Oh and if you think that it's way too complicated right now tell me and I won't have Rossi being Caitlin's dad ha ha just kidding, got you worried there for a second didn't I :D ha ha. But seriously, if you think it's too complicated right now tell me please! :D**


	16. After

**Chapter 16**

**After**

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* * *

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**A/N: wow! Three days in a row! Thanks to everyone who reviewed and story alerted :-) just to warn you, I'm going to refer to Lexi as Caitlin now :-) And sorry I couldn't think of a better chapter name**

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* * *

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"Yeah, yeah I am." JJ said softly "sorry..."

"Why are you apologising?"

"Because I didn't tell you... or her. And because I didn't even know that it was her, I didn't recognise my own _sister_!"

Derek sighed as she leant into him, her head fitting into the crook in his neck, just like it did 21 years ago.

"At first I thought it was her, but I just thought my mind was playing tricks on me, like it did when she first disappeared, I saw her face everywhere... in the end, I just ignore it..."

"We're going to get her back; I'll make sure of that." Derek reassured her, stroking her hair,

"I hope so..." JJ said as she remembered the time when Caitlin first went missing

* * *

"_Katy! You ready?"_

"_Yeah!" Caitlin ran up to her "wow!"_

"_What?"_

"_You look so pretty!"_

"_Thanks, you think Derek will like it?"_

"_Yeah! Duh!"_

_Jenifer smiled,_

"_Did you know that the 57 on Heinz ketchup bottles represents the number of varieties of pickles the company once had?" Caitlin looked up at her as they walked out the door _

"_No, I didn't... bye dad! We'll be back in a few hours." Jen yelled as she closed the door._

"_The first known contraceptive was crocodile dung, used by Egyptians in 2000 B.C." Caitlin said running a stick along the railings outside their block of flats _

"_Should I be worried that you know that?" Jenifer laughed _

"_Know what?" a voice said_

"_That the first known contraceptive was crocodile dung, used by Egyptians in 2000 B.C." Caitlin repeated as she turned around "Derek!" she ran up to him and hugged him _

"_Hey Kay, how are you?"_

"_Good, my dad got my IQ tested last week." She beamed at him _

"_So that's where you went! What is it?"_

"_179"_

"_Seriously?"_

"_Uh huh!"_

"_I don't believe you."_

"_It's true!" she protested "I have a certificate to prove it, and the head teacher for a school wants me to go there!"_

"_No way!"_

"_Yeah! It's a super cool school for people with an IQ of over 160... I got the uniform yesterday as well."_

_Jenifer smiled as Derek and Caitlin talked about her new school, Caitlin hadn't stopped talking about it since she was offered a place, she didn't know that their father had to take out a loan for the tuition fees, then again, it was probably best that she didn't know, she wasn't a normal seven year old._

"_And I have to wear a blazer, and a tie."_

"_Wow, sound like a pretty cool uniform... now Kay, can I go say hi to your sister?"_

"_Okay"_

"_Jen," he straightened up and smiled _

"_Hey." She said before they kissed. Caitlin mimed vomiting, as she always did, and Jenifer had to break off to try and stop laughing,_

"_What?" he asked _

"_Turn around." She said in between giggles, he turned around to find Caitlin pretending to vomit all over the pavement._

"_Oh so you think that's funny?" he said to Caitlin smiling "I'll show you funny." He said as he swung her onto his back "you ready to go to the fair?"_

"_Yeah!"_

_They began walking _

"_So elephant poo?"_

"_Uh huh." Caitlin nodded as Jenifer and Derek tried stifling giggles _

"_What else do you know?"_

"_A Neanderthals brain is bigger than ours."_

"_No, I don't believe that."_

"_It's true!"_

"_No! I mean, come on, cave men? Their brains can't be bigger than ours."_

"_It's true!" she said as Derek laughed _

"_1 in 5,000 north Atlantic lobsters are born bright blue."_

"_No way!"_

_That was what it was like for the rest of the journey, Caitlin would tell them facts then Derek would pretend not to believe her, whereas he knew that if he looked them up, they would be true._

_When they got to the fair Caitlin ran off to get some cotton candy while they waited for her just outside the stall _

"_I hope you don't mind that I brought her along." Jenifer apologised _

"_You serious? I love having her around; it's like a walking encyclopaedia. It's fun."_

_She lent up to kiss him then they broke apart to find Caitlin standing there with three sticks of cotton candy_

"_What no fake vomiting?"_

"_Ha ha, very funny." She said handing then their cotton candy_

"_Thanks," Jenifer said smiling "so what now?"_

"_Wow!" Caitlin said, wide eyed_

"_What?"_

"_Look at that merry-go-round!" she pointed to the merry go round_

"_You wanna go on that?"_

"_Okay." She ran towards it _

"_Now how is it she can act so old, but so young at the same time?" Derek asked as he began to kiss her,_

"_I don't know." She smiled _

"_We should probably go find her."_

"_Yeah." _

_Jenifer smiled as she watched Derek run into the crowds after her sister _

_Her smile faded as she heard Derek yell "Kay? Where are you? Now's not the time to be hiding."_

_She spotted Derek on the outskirts of a crowd of people_

"_You can't find her?"_

"_No." He looked worried _

"_We'll find her, she can't have gone far." She said as someone screamed _

"_That was her!" Derek said running off in the direction where the scream came from, Jenifer began to panic as she followed him_

_

* * *

_

The rest of the memory was a blur to JJ, she had called the police, but she broke down crying halfway through so Derek had to take over, but they couldn't file a missing persons report until 24 hours had gone by. JJ had to go home and tell her father, he was disappointed but he tried not to show it. That was one of the worst days in her life.

* * *

Back in the office Eleanor was on her laptop

"What are you doing?" Prentiss looked over her shoulder

"Just searching... maybe I can find something to help"

"Anything?"

"Some information on Lucas..."

"Okay hit me."

"Okay... well, he went through some rebellious teen years" she turned the laptop towards Emily

"Wow." She said looking at the list "those were some years."

Eleanor smiled bitterly "yeah... it was expunged after a Kyle Wilson made a statement saying that he'd 'changed'"

"Anything on him?"

"Nope, nothing, he's a model citizen, and when I say model citizen I _mean_ model citizen,"

"Volunteer work, charity donations" as Emily looked through the list she couldn't help but think of another case which this sounded suspiciously like.

"Oh my god," Eleanor said, horror filling her eyes

"What?"

"You don't want to know..."

"What?" she repeated "tell me Eleanor!" she said as Eleanor didn't reply

"There's a video, being streamed on the internet, for everyone to see..."

"What about it?"

"It's..." she couldn't finish, so she just turned the screen so Emily could see.

"Oh my god."

* * *

**A/N: so what do you think is the video of? Tell me :D**

**VVVVV thanks to everyone who hit that little button down here VVVVV**


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